China's revenge!
Last edited Sun Mar 18, 2012, 08:59 PM - Edit history (1)
Donald Trump has publicly expressed his opinion that "China is eating our lunch" in the US-China trade deficit.
Mitt Romney has made similar statements. But even more telling was president Obama's statement that
China was unfairly restricting the export of "rare earths," key ingredients for a wide array of cutting edge techologies.
http://2012.republican-candidates.org/Romney/China.php
http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2012/03/13/obama-administration-says-chinas-unfair-trade-practices-threaten-green-energy-development/
Over the years, China has learned to compete with, and even beat, heavy weight Capitalists at their own game. China owns over 1.1 Trillion in US debt: a fact that increases Beijing's leverage in US affairs.
http://useconomy.about.com/od/fiscalpolicy/p/US_Debt.htm
While China is emerging as a potent world economy their pre-communist history is replete with abuses at the hands of the West. With that in mind, it might be worthwhile to invoke a historical review in the context of present developments.
Have we forgotten the Opium wars? I doubt China has. Opium was forced upon Imperial China by the British, not once, but twice..
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/juliankossoff/100063040/david-cameron-in-china-dont-mention-the-opium-wars/
The Telegraph, a UK based paper reporting on a recent trade delegation to China, noted:
David Cameron leads largest trade delegation to China in 200 years", hollered the headlines this week, with an almost subconscious allusion to the fact that two centuries of Anglo-Chinese trade includes the most demonic chapter in the history of the British Empire: the Opium Wars.
That particular imperial adventure is long forgotten in the UK, but the Chinese claim it as a national tragedy. As a result, the innocent Rememberance Poppy has now been caught in the historical crossfire.
To the shock of David Cameron and his colleagues, they were asked to remove the emblems before the PM's official welcome at Beijing’s Great Hall. To their credit, a host of officials and four other Cabinet ministers — George Osborne, Michael Gove, Chris Huhne and Vince Cable — all refused to take them off.
But the effects of the Opium Wars still cascade through time. Then, like now, China produced what Europe and the USA desperately wanted. Rather than iPods and Primark's latest autumn/winter range, it was tea, silk and porcelain.
Is the Rise of the "dragon" symptomatic of some deep seated desire for revenge or is it just wise old men finding ways to feed their palpitating masses? The US enjoyed UK support in the 2nd Opium war and that makes us culpable in the eyes of the P.R.O.C.